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Concerning Bretonia's Future: Toward a New System - beander2 - 08-10-2008
The Editorial Section at The Times of New London is committed to sharing with the public all information necessary to making informed decisions in our daily lives. To this end, we publish the following letter sent to us by a leading citizen of Bretonia. As per the citizen's wishes, we share only the pseudonym. As always, the views of our readers and commentators do not necessarily reflect the view of this news organization or the Editorial Staff.
Fellow Bretonians,
What we are told by our government and what persists in reality are irreconcilable.
We are told the monarchy seeks to defend the best interests of Bretonia. Yet, our sons and daughters continue to die in a futile war that seems to have no end.
We are told the megacorporations have made Bretonia great, yet our brothers and sisters work in hazardous conditions with inadequate benefits and poor care for their health, and our star systems lie polluted and cluttered with the refuse of the corporate elite and their agendas.
We are told Bretonia is strong, and that our Queen secures that strength at every turn. Yet, our population decreases, our culture stagnates, our wealth dissipates, our nation divides.
What we are told by our government and what persists in reality are irreconcilable.
The direction of our nation must be reversed, or we will surely collapse into that oblivion reserved for those throughout history who ignorantly squandered their greatness. Such a reversal requires change, and not simply minor adjustments in the way we do things in Bretonia, but a sea change in our thinking, our behavior, even our very identity.
There are a number of us who have witnessed this digression first-hand in our halls of government, in the company board room, in the academy, in the pilots seat, in the coal mine. We tried to forestall it, to stem the tide of corruption and injustice, but we failed. We were not strong enough to work within the current system to correct all that which so desperately needs correction.
We have therefore concluded that it is time to change the system itself.
Beginning with our very government, we must allow the will of the people to flourish. We have concluded that the only path to accomplishing this is federalism. This is not the strong federalism that some have used in history to centralize governments, but rather a move toward a federal system of government. Such a system would rely first upon local control, rather than centralized house control: local communities in each system whether they be planetary, sub-planetary, orbital, or other would depend for its governance on its own, local leadership. From there, each system would have a governor, whose responsibility it is to ensure the justice, competence, and proper resources for the various local governments. Moreover, each local system would elect, as now, representatives to Parliament. However, this Parliament would be the locus of national government, not simply a prop for the monarchy as we have now. The Prime Minister would act as head of state and head of government, but would be duly elected and no longer under the control of a separate and ultimate center of power. The center of power in this federal system would be the Bretonian People. This is as it should be.
The corporations should also take careful note. The market is not immune to the will of the people, and the economic power of the elite does not trump the will of the people. Workers must be developed as people, rather than maintained as resources. They must be adequately paid, cared for medically, and allowed to advance in their careers. They must NOT be deliberately placed in harms way without their knowledge or without proper precaution, in order to profit those who are already rich. They know their companies and their work arguably better than their executives, so their practical wisdom must be taken into consideration.
Such a change in political and economic systems cannot happen without widespread and deep commitment. It will not be easy. Members of Parliament and labor leaders will undoubtedly be intimidated, even threatened, and many will bow to the pressure exerted by the Crown and its Industrial Complex rather than stand for the peoples self-determination. We must stand behind them, stand alongside them, embolden them and even suffer with them. We must stand as one if we are to accomplish this great task set before us.
Above all, we must not give up. And we must not fail. The future of our nation depends on what we do right here and right now.
VALERIUS PUBLICOLA